The bitter cold that rolled into the Rockies late last week and into the weekend will move east into the Midwest and Great Lakes and later in the week into New England. Cold air will also overspread some of the southern plains and will push into areas of the deep south.

Stock growers in the plains and upper Midwest and Great Lakes should be prepared for much colder temperatures and very cold wind chills over the next week to ten days. In addition to the cold, significant lake effect snows will hit the shores of the Great Lakes.

The coldest air will hit over the weekend, especially the Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and then spreading south and east into the Corn Belt and Great Lakes. Very cold temperatures will also spread into New England.

Although the cold wave will bring some snowfall to many areas, snowfall amounts are expected to be generally light. The exception will be heavier snows in the Great Lakes from lake effect snows and there may be an area of ice/snow that could impact Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia between Wednesday and Friday of this week.

Therefore, despite the cold and unsettled weather, precipitation amounts, especially in the drought areas of the central and southern plains will be light. However, this is not unusual in the month of January as the Canadian air masses moving into the country tend to be quite dry.

There will be some relief from the cold along the west coast, especially California, however, cold air will remain trapped in the basins and valleys of the Great Basin and Rockies, keeping those temperatures below normal.

The expected trend to a colder winter season has now developed and will likely persist through the rest of January and into February.